


Cognizant

by Rueitae



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Kidnapping, Torture, im not really sure how to tag the threat of it, the non cogs are back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 16:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18705667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rueitae/pseuds/Rueitae
Summary: There are consequences of Team Voltron stealing the Sincline reality comet from Hira, and this universe’s Lance and Pidge get the brunt of it.





	Cognizant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cgf_kat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cgf_kat/gifts).



> Kat needed motivation so I wrote this thing. The request was for Lance torture with Pidge or Shiro there.
> 
> I didn’t think it was graphic enough to warrant a warning, but there is some description of torture.

Lance screamed the instant the hot metal rod dug into his bare side. 

“Tell me where the comet is,” Hira demanded. She pushed the rod in further, forcing its way between muscle.

Lance gasped for breath. He squeezed his hands into fists, stomach clenching, squirming against the chains and straps that held him firm to the vertical table  - anything to take his mind away from the unbearable heat pressing into and under his skin.

His side cried in pain, his wrists and ankles hurt from desperate tugging, his throat burned in agony for water.

“Stop it!” Pidge’s hysterical voice carried clear over his ragged and increasingly hoarse screams. He could hear her struggling against the guard that held her in place. “We don’t know! We don’t even know what it looks like!” she said. “Please,  _ please _ stop hurting him.”

The pain ceased and Lance slumped in relief, tears flowing freely. His hands remained restrained, unable to wipe the salty liquid away. 

“The comet was seized by your doppelgangers from another reality,” Hira said evenly. It’s the first piece of information they’ve been given - why they’ve been kidnapped in the first place. 

Another reality? She had to be insane.

“The probability that the two of you are involved with the Guns of Gamora is high,” she continued. Lance’s heartbeat rose. He’d heard of the Guns, but he and Pidge weren’t involved with them at all! 

Oh Ancients, Hira was going to torture them both over  _ nothing _ . Over a theory about something that doesn’t exist.

“Your calculations are wrong,” Pidge insisted. “We don’t have anything for you. Let us go!”

Lance thought that maybe Hira would listen, that this nightmare would finally be over. He and Pidge could go back to Earth and finish their training at the Galaxy Garrison. Fighter pilot training was becoming more appealing by the minute. Then he  _ could _ join the fight for Earth’s freedom - for the universe’s freedom. 

Anyone opposing the Altean Empire and this crazy general was good in his book.

“Perhaps the two of you are telling the truth,” Hira conceded. 

Lance let himself relax, head resting heavily on the metal slab. 

“Prepare the boy for Non-Cog surgery.”

“No!” Pidge yelled, sharp enough to cut the tension in the room.

Lance eyes shoot open, heart seized with fear. To be alive, but without any sense of self was a horror beyond his wildest imagination. His voice cracked, “but I haven’t done anything!”

“Yet,” Hira says. “All realities have common threads. I will not have you compromising the peace of the universe like your doppelganger.” She turns to the guard. “If human implantation is successful, do it for the girl too.”

Red clouds his vision. Fear for himself was one thing, but for Pidge to be subjected to the Non-Cog… he couldn’t live in a world where her innovation, brilliance, and passion doesn’t exist.

“Don’t you touch her!” he snarled. It came out a whisper, hardly intimidating at all.

His muscles and nerves erupted on fire, painfully aware of the electricity coursing through his body. The feeling of weightlessness overcame him, back arched involuntarily. General Hira was not kidding, Lance thought fleetingly, an attempt to think of anything other than the pain.

The onslaught stopped and cool metal hit his bony shoulder blades, once more resting on the upright table. The room swirled. Lance tried to focus on Pidge but her petite figure twisted and blurred amid the fuzzy foreground. 

“Please don’t!” Pidge said, her voice full of sobs.

His head suddenly dropped back past his shoulders, headrest taken away. Lance blinked as an Altean scientist towered over him. The scientist lifted his head and a cool sensation - a liquid of some kind, not quite water more gel-like, thicker  - graced the back of his neck. 

A knot twisted in his stomach as his brain caught up with what was going on. They were preparing him for surgery  _ now _ . With all of his strength Lance fought against his bindings, hoping that something would give if he just tried hard enough. 

It was all he had left for both himself and Pidge. 

“I’m a scientist too,” Pidge pleaded. “I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t do this to Lance! He’s not dangerous!”

“I think your resistance is proof enough of your intent,” Hira said cooly. “By implementing the Non-Cog in both of you now, peace will be preserved.”

Pidge exploded. “You’re sick and twisted! Your peace is nothing but a lie!”

Hira tched. “Beings such as yourself will never understand our efforts.” She nodded to the scientist above him.

His heart ached. He’d never enjoy life again, never feel joy or sorrow. Would he even understand what was going on around him? His family -  _ Pidge _ .

“I love you,” he managed. It was barely a whisper as the scientist placed a mask over his face. In his last moments of self, he locked his eyes on her’s. He hoped his eyes and lips conveyed the message she  _ needed _ to know.

Pidge sobbed, leaning forward though her arms are pulled back by her guard. “I know,” she confessed. “I’m going to find a way to reverse this,” she promised, voice cracking. “I love you.”

Lance stopped crying. Why? He was  _ sad _ . 

He moved a finger - and couldn’t feel it. 

He was still crying, still clenched in fear - but he couldn’t feel it.

The operation had started. The liquid substance that had been placed on the back of his neck numbed him. 

Pidge struggled to escape, calling his name in desperation. Lance couldn’t stop looking at her. Maybe if he could commit everything about her to memory - her sharp hazel eyes, her long auburn hair, her eyebrows furrowed as if they played an intense video game - he’d at least have something nice seared in his brain before it went blank.

He mourned their lost time together. He mourned never feeling a hug from his mother again. Never being able to enjoy life, to experience the thrill of flying. If Pidge shared his fate, he mourned the loss of a genius to the world of science, and a good and loyal daughter and sister to her family. 

He just hoped that his shell would never be used to hurt loved ones. 

“Stage one commencing,” the scientist said calmly, as he were a mechanic changing a tire.

Life was good while it lasted. He might as well say hello to the afterlife.

“Yoo-hoo!”

...he hadn’t expected the afterlife to respond back, much less have a…  _ Scandinavian _ accent?

_ What? _

The ventilation cover came crashing down in front of him, followed by two figures dressed in black, holding guns at the ready.

“Drop everything Alteans!” the one with - did he have  _ six arms _ ? - said. “Your ship is set to explode. You wouldn’t want your precious quintessence stores to be destroyed would you?”

_ Self Destruct Sequence Activated.  _ Came the message from the intercom system.  _ Twenty doboshes until central core meltdown. _

Hira growled. “To the bridge!” she ordered. “The quintessence is our first priority! Leave the prisoners.”

Lance’s head fell back again, once again not supported by anything. Hira and her men left the room in a rush, Pidge pushed to the ground, but with  _ him _ and their rescuers. 

“Phew,” the taller rescuer says, the one with the accent. “That was a bit of a close call there. Looks like I have to save you in every reality, Lance.”

Lance had no idea what the man was talking about. His attention was preoccupied by Pidge’s lips on his, mask off and thrown to the side, trying to imagine the feeling of her small hands cupping his cheeks tenderly. 

“We need to get out of here,” Pidge said as she cuts off the kiss. The six armed man helped her undo his restraints. 

“I’ll pay you back for that kiss,” he promised her.

“I expect that and player one privileges on Killbot Phantasm,” she teases. Though the words are lighthearted, Pidge does not smile. They had come so close to losing each other and more forever.

The man with the accent was there to catch him when he fell, free from the bindings. Pidge held his arm tight, keeping him from falling all the way to the ground. 

“I can’t feel anything,” he said. “I can’t walk.”

“We’ve got you, Lance. We’ll be back at the Galaxy Garrison in no time,” Pidge assured him.

“The numbing liquid should wear off in three varga,” the six armed man said. He scampered to the door. “Quickly! Our odds of escaping decrease by 2% for every tic we spent chatting!”

The four of them escape through the chaos. Lance decided right then that whatever happened next, he was not going to waste his time with his loved ones and doing the things he enjoyed. He  _ would _ fly a fighter jet, he  _ would _ goof off with his friends, he  _ would _ spend time with his family.

And he  _ would  _ spend as much time as he possibly could with Pidge.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](https://rueitae.tumblr.com/)


End file.
